cultivate the land with abundant skill; are carpenters, joiners, black. smiths, goldmiths, weavers, masons, &c. I have visited their villages, and have found them affable, hospitable, and honest; and though the Spaniards speak of, and even treat them with contempt, I have found that the vices, which they place to the account of the Indians, ought in justice to be attributed to the government they have established among them.'

It is evident that a settlement supported by so numerous a people, and of so good a character, if under the encouragement of a good government, would not be shaken by any force which other nations could send against it: but, in their present situation, such (says M. de la Pérouse) is the dislike which they have of their rulers, that the leaders of any force, designing conquest, and bringing arms ready to put into the hands of the Indians, would find an army of them ready to act

under their orders.

M. de la P. and his editor, both think highly of the im portance of the Philippines; observing that, from their extent, climate, and fertility, they are capable of producing all colonial commodities, and that they are objects which may be coveted by the maritime powers of Europe.'

Among the military forces maintained by the Spaniards at Manilla, is a Mexican regiment of 1300 men:-'these soldiers are of the colour of Mulattoes; and in point of skill and valour,, (we were assured,) not at all inferior to European troops.'

Of the island Luconia, M. de la Pérouse says,

The climate will allow the produce of ten crops of silk in a year, whilst that of China gives but a faint promise of two.

Cotton, indigo, sugar canes, coffee, grow without the trouble of cultivation, under the footsteps of the inhabitants, who despise them. Every circumstance promises, that their spices would not be at all inferior to those of the Moluccas; an absolute liberty of commerce for all nations would ensure a sale, that would encourage the cultivation of them all; and a moderate duty on all articles exported wculd be sufficient, in a very few years, to defray all the expences of go vernment.'

While the navigators remained at Manilla, they heard that two ships, fitted out by the French government, had arrived . in Canton river, immediately after they had left Macao; and they had the satisfaction of being joined by one of them, La Subtile, which brought dispatches for them from France. From this ship they likewise received a small reinforcement of men, to replace in part those who had been so unfortunately lost.

[To be concluded in another Article.]

ART.

ART. VIII. An Essay on British Cottage Architecture: being an Attempt to perpetuate on Principle, that peculiar Mode of Building, which was originally the Effect of Chance. Supported by Fourteen Designs, with their Ichnography, or Plans, laid down on Scale; comprising Dwellings for the Peasant and Farmer, and Retreats for the Gentleman; with various Observations thereon: the whole extending to Twenty-One Plates, designed and executed in Aqua-Tinta. By James Malton. 4to. 11. 75. Boards. Hookham and Carpenter. 1798.

SUF

UFFICIENT attention has certainly not been paid to the principles which ought to govern rural architecture. When we wander out of town, we see in every part of the country buildings which appear to have wandered out of town also; or, like the Santa Casa, to have taken a flight through the air from some square in the metropolis, and to have alighted in the midst of a garden or a green field. The genius of the place, in fact, has not been at all consulted: between the building and the surrounding scenery, all is dissonance and incongruity. Is this the fault of architects or of their employers? Sometimes of both: but most frequently, we believe, of the latter. Architects, however, have not always studied rural effect. Employed in contemplating regular Grecian designs, and exercising their genius, for the most part, in decorating cities and large towns with magnificent edifices, their attention has been but slightly directed to that style of architecture which is most adapted to the country; so that, when they have been required to give designs for a gentleman's seat, they have perhaps exhibited some of the prominent features of his town residence.

Many of the country retreats of the successful citizen have been erected without the assistance of any regular architect. These mercantile gentlemen, who have known the value only of tangible commodities, have little notion of paying for so undefinable a thing as taste, and for mere ideas; and they therefore resign themselves to the bricklayer and carpenter, who make out a bill for materials and labour, and kindly throw their judgment into the bargain. It must be great good-fortune, if beauty be the result of such management.

It may be added that persons who have passed the most valuable part of life," in crowded cities pent," carry their habits and partialities along with them, when they are arranging-a settlement in the country; and hence, in order to satisfy them, the villa must resemble, in its altitude, in the shape of its windows, and in the position of the kitchen, their comfortable house in

REV. Nov. 1798.

street.

Now what is an architect to do? "He who lives to please, must please to live." He must therefore sacrifice taste to the whim of his employer.

It may be said that this will always be more or less the case. True:-but evils may be diminished, if they cannot be annihi-lated. Let attempts be made to propagate true taste; let a style of architecture, as particularly adapted to rural scenes, be inculcated, and the doctrine will spread and at last become fashionable; let professional men take up the subject, and publish exemplifications and elucidations of their thoughts, and our men of money must learn and adopt them.

All lovers of picturesque effect must approve of such publications as that now before us. They may not admire every idea and design, but the general result will be an improvement of our taste, and the decoration of the country with more appropriate buildings.

Mr. Malton has confined himself to cottage architecture: but we wish that the principle of fitness and congruity, in respect to the surrounding scenery, may be followed in the construction of all country houses, as well great as small. We do not, however, object to Mr. M. that he has not extended his thoughts; it is sufficient if he has executed what he has undertaken, viz. to give an Essay, accompanied with Designs, on British Cottage Architecture. He has said nothing of the Swiss Cottage, or Chaumiere; from which, we think, ideas may be adopted with effect, in this country. The cottage architecture of this island he supposes to have been originally the effect of chance: but we do not altogether accede to this opinion. The sharp roofs and projecting eaves, in our old farm-houses and cottages, are rather proofs of the good-sense of our ancestors, than effects of chance; as shewing that they considered the nature of our climate, to which the flat roofs, &c. of Grecian buildings are very ill adapted.

In his introduction, Mr. M. merely expresses a desire to perpetuate the peculiar beauty of the British picturesque rustic habitations; regarding them, with the country church, as the most pleasing, the most suitable ornaments of art that can be introduced to embellish rural nature-but his work tends to improve as well as to perpetuate.

It may be difficult, perhaps, precisely and accurately to define the term-COTTAGE; Mr. M. makes the attempt: but neither as a description nor as a definition is his remark complete.

When mention is made of the kind of dwelling called a Cottage, (he says,) I figure to my imagination a small house in the country;

of

of odd irregular form, with various harmonious colouring, the effect of weather, time, and accident [according to this there can be no such thing as a new cottage]; the whole environed with smiling verdure, having a contented, chearful, inviting aspect, and door on the latch, ready to receive the gossip neighbour or weary exhausted traveller. There are many indescribable somethings that must necessarily combine to give to a dwelling this distinguishing character. A porch at entrance; irregular breaks in the direction of the walls; one part higher than another; various roofing of different materials, thatch particularly, boldly projecting; fronts partly built of walls of brick, partly weather-boarded, and partly brick-noggin dashed; casement window lights are all conducive, and constitute its features.'

A porch, dripping-eaves, casement window-lights, irregular breaks, and apparent lightness of structure, are essential properties of a cottage: but we do not see that it ought necessarily to be deformed with the patched appearance of brick-wall, brick-noggin, and weather boards. Poverty may have obliged the peasant thus to deface his cot: but it should not hence be assumed as a principle that the cottage, under the direction of the professional designer, must be thus constructed. It is a style of building that admits of much elegance, and it should at least be the object of the rural improver to avoid deformity. Cottage architecture excludes red-brick fronts, sash windows, and parapets: but fronts all rough-cast, or boarded, it may admit; and as the heavy assessments on windows may drive some gentlemen into small houses, we wish to invite to the improvement of the cottage, both as to external appearance and internal accommodation, without departing from its essential characteristics.

Some of Mr. Malton's designs have this laudable intention; yet, while we admire them on the whole, he will allow us to remark, that the Grecian portico * and sash-window door are improper affixes to the outside of a cottage; and that an underground kitchen is out of all character within.

Where every purpose of domestic convenience must be obtained (as is the case in cities and populous towns) on a narrow scite, story must be piled on story; and kitchens and sculleries, &c. must be placed under ground, though the whole house is thus made to smell of cooking effluvia even to the very attics: but this is not necessary in the country, where the building may spread; and therefore it ought to be avoided.

*The Gothic porch is more suited to the cottage than any with a Grecian pediment, even though the pillars be merely oak stumps with the bark on, or made with heart of oak carved in imitation of the bark of a tree. This may suit the entrance of a root-house, but not that of an habitable mansion.

We admire the remarks of Mr. M. on the subject of cottage windows, and the specimens which he has recommended are worthy of adoption; yet we question whether he has not too hastily condemned those windows which are constructed with compound arches, and enriched with circular ramifications of Gothic tracery. May not the Gothic taste be admitted with effect into the elegant cottage, and its enrichments increase the beauty of the picturesque?

In plates 11, 12, 13, and 14, Mr. Malton has shewn how rusticity may be united with elegance; and designs of this nature, though not always with the adoption of Mr. M.'s ideas, we would recommend to gentlemen who are building in rural situations.

Respecting the peasant's cot and the farm house, we say less as to their beauty: though we hope that the proprietors of land will not be inattentive to the rules of taste in the erection of them. If cottage architecture becomes the fashion, it will easily descend to inferior dwellings.

With the cottage, Mr. Malton combines in his view (as, by concatenation of ideas, is almost unavoidable) the Old Country Church. How often have we lamented, as he does, that this beautiful feature in rural scenes is gradually obliterating; and that piles which are characterised by flat insipidity are rising in their place! Most devoutly do we wish that the holy edifices which were erected by our pious ancestors may be kept from decay, and that we may neither be disposed to destroy them ourselves, nor allow Time to effect its depredations on them.

As Mr. M. concludes with observing that his performance is scarcely satisfactory to his own mind, we hope that he will not be displeased with the freedom of our strictures. Our object in making them is the improvement of an art of which he is evidently an ingenious follower.

ART. IX. Reports of Cases argued and determined in the Court of King's Bench, from Michaelmas Term 37 Geo. III. 1796, to Trinity Term 38 Geo. III. 1798, both inclusive. With Tables of the Names of Cases and Principal Matters. By Charles Durnford and Edward Hyde East, of the Temple, Esqrs. Barristers at Law. Vol. VII. Folio. pp. 800. 21. Ss. bound. Butterworth. 1798.

T Is progressive work commenced in the year 1785, and has been continued, at the end of each term, down to the present time. Of the first two volumes we gave a short account in our Soth vol. p. 246: but of the subsequent parts we have contented ourselves with merely announcing to our readers