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the nursery, with the other household gods of infancy. His grams mar and spelling book, or, as the grandiloquent philosophers of Paris term them, his analytical and synthetical tables of the French language, received on the 27th April 1787 the formal approbation of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres. They were accompanied with a bag of playthings, serving to teach the elements of discourse to children, in the manner of a game.-He still continues to pursue this career of amiable utility, and has dedicated to Lady Auckland three volumes of Graduated Lessons for Children, which begin with ab, eb, ib, ob, ub, and terminate with various sheets of coloured circles; which, at first, we supposed to be intended to teach the theory of the prismatic colours, but which only serve to inclose the different words of a motley sentence. The child is to be provided with a rabbit's hair pencil, and a box of paints; he is to colour blue the circles which surround an adjective, and red the circumference of a verb; a yellow glory is to crown a conjunction; and an interjection is to exhale in viewless white. Such is the character of his arts or artifices of tuition.

We do not think the subject-matter of the dialogues well-chosen ; they are dialogues with children, to be sure: but are they not such as tend to foster a frivolous taste?

NOVELS.

Art. 15. Clara Duplefis and Clairant: the History of a Family of French Emigrants. Translated from the German. 12mo. 3 Vols. 10s. 6d. Boards. Longman.

In our 22d volume, p. 570, we spoke with much praise of this original novel of Augustus Lafontaine (author of "Family Stories," see vol. xxiv. p. 565), of which these three volumes contain a flowing and sufficiently correct translation, but made apparently through the medium of the French version. The story preserves its nature and its interest.

Art. 16. Count Donamar, or Errors of Sensibility. From the German. 12mo. 3 Vols. 10s. 6d. sewed. Johnson.

This work contains all the bloated magnificence of diction, extra vagance of imagination, and wild eccentricity of adventure, by which many of the German novels are distinguished; and we fear, also, that its tendency is unfavourable to the cause of religion and virtue. The hero, though set up as a pattern of all that is great and excellent, is a strange composition of pride and presumption; impatient of controul, a slave to his passions, (which he frequently mistakes for virtues,) inflated with false notions of honour, a sceptic in religion, and a quack in politics :-his friend St. Julian, though less headstrong and ungoverned, is equally visionary and romantic: other characters are alike objectionable, on different grounds; and the sentiments are frequently immoral, and highly favourable to the criminal indulgence of our passions. The countenance given to seif-murder is particularly reprehensible.

AFFAIRS OF IRELAND.

Art. 17. The Causes of the Rebellion in Ireland disclosed, in an Address to the People of England; in which it is proved by incontro

vertible

vertible Facts, that the System for some Years pursued in that Country has driven it into its present dreadful Situation. By an Irish Emigrant. Svo. Is. 6d. Jordan. 1798.

The recent situation of Ireland has been, as this vehementemigrant' calls it, dreadful' indeed; and whatever tends to elucidate the causes which led to that unhappy situation must be highly inte The present publication on that resting on either side of the water. subject appears to be the composition of a person who is conversant in Irish politics, but we know not what credit is due to it. We are indeed persuaded that the writer was not in the secret, with respect to the party which he has espoused.

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Of the system by which Ireland has been governed since the 1783, when the independence of her legislature was established, a history is here given which represents the administration of Ireland as being uniformly actuated by the one great principle, of substituting a corrupt influence in the legislature of that country, instead of that supremacy by means of which the British cabinet had formerly governed it, but which they had been obliged in 1783 to give up. The discontents which have agitated Ireland, from that period downwards, are alledged to have had their origin in the overbearing and corrupt character of the Irish ministers; while the various concessions of constitutional measures, which had taken place, are asserted to have been made reluctantly and late; and therefore to have produced neither conciliation nor gratitude.

Tracing the workings of British influence in the parliament and cabinet of Ireland through its opposition to the volunteers, to the volunteer convention, to parliamentary reform, and to the attempts of the catholics to obtain the clective franchise, the author comes to state the origin of that body so singular in its formation, and so fertile, in the result, of mischief to Ireland,-the UNITED IRISHMEN.

Among other modes which had been devised for giving greater efficacy to the public will on this subject, was that of forming societies which should have for their sole object to animate, to direct, to concentrate, the exertions of the people in the pursuit of this favourite and vital measure. Of these societies the first was formed in Dublin, of a few men whose talents, principles, and character, moral and political, gave such weight and popularity to their union, as soon swelled its numbers to a magnitude, which, while it gave hope to the friends of the popular cause, excited in the administration very lively alarm. But it was yet more the principles of this body than its numbers which alarmed administration. The original members of the society, men of minds not only firmly attached to the politieal interests of this country, but superior to the influence of bigotry, which had been the most powerful instrument in the hands of the Court faction for dividing and weakening the people, made it a radical principle of their union to promote as abolition of all religious distinction, and to procure for all the freemen of the state, whatever might be their religious sentiments, a participation in all the privileges of the British constitution. A feform in parliament, accompanied by such a principle as this, became a

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measure

measure in which every man in the country was interested: and the catholics, who constitute the great majority of the people, more interested than others. The consequence was, that men of every description of religion, men of every rank in life, not immediately under the controul or influence of the Castle, adopted the principles of the society, or solicited admission into the ranks. The fear and the hatred of administration was soon manifested. Every art was used to blacken the principles of the society-its principal members were pointed out as the agitators of sedition-the enemies of social orderand men who aimed at nothing less than a subversion of the constitution and separation from Great Britain, under the pretext of reform and emancipation. The prints which were in the pay of the Castle vomited out daily the most gross, the most malignant, and irritating calumnies; and even the senate itself, now really forgetting its dignity, condescended to become the scurrilous aggressor not merely of the society at large, but of particular, and, in many instances, inconsiderable members of it.'.

This despicable conduct' [we quote the writer's language] in the prevailing faction in Ireland, the author reckons among the prime causes of the popular discontents. There were other measures, he says, to which administration resorted to prop their power, and to form a substitute for that legitimate strength which is only to be found in the cheerful support of a contented people. Among these, we are told, were wanton prosecutions of innocent and respectable men for libels, which all publications were construed to be that dared to talk of reform, or of constitutional rights as things to be desired.

Another of the causes stated to have led to the present crisis was the Convention-bill;-a measure proposed by administration, and adopted by parliament for the avowed purpose of preventing the Catholics from collecting the sense of their body on a petition to parliament, or to the throne, for the elective franchise. The Gunpowder-bill, which deprived the Irish subject in a great measure of the constitutional power of self-defence, was prior to the Conventionact, and had prepared the minds of the people for receiving its full impression.

The attempt to annihilate the independence of the country, by insisting on the right of Britain to choose a regent for Ireland, and the subsequent attempt of the same kind in 1785 to substitute a commercial boon for the right of self-government, had already gone far toward producing a tendency to irritation in the people, which these more vital attacks completed.

Nor did even these measures produce so much discontent as the tone and the spirit in which they were carried into execution. The most insulting imputations on the loyalty, and even on the intellect of the nation, were daily made by the needy adventurers, whom chance, or perhaps infamous services, had raised to a place in the administration. The public prints were polluted with the foulest calumny against every man who had the virtue and the courage to oppose a system which he foresaw must eventually terminate in the ruin of the country. Some of the basest of mankind, distinguished, however, by more than

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usual talents for perversion and invective, were appointed to conduct those publications which were paid by the public money for abusing the national character. The Whig Club, consisting of noblemen aud gentlemen who, by possessing large property and extensive connections in the country, felt themselves bound to oppose the mad mea sures of men who, as they were mostly foreigners, had no interest but to turn the present moment to most advantage, were held up to the public, both in and out of parliament, as enemies to the tranquillity of the state, and anxious only, at all events, to raise themselves to power.'

Having dwelt at some length on these predisposing causes of the national discontent, the author comes to that which he considers as the more immediate cause of the recent disturbances: beginning with the religiõus feuds in the county of Armagh; and proceeding to de tails of spreading and growing mischief, for which we refer to the pamphlet itself:-having already quoted from it enough to give our readers an idea of the spirit and style of the author. In many parts of his statement, and particularly in his invectives, he has rather the air of a declamatory advocate than of an impartial narrator.

MILITARY AFFAIRS.

Art. 18. The Art of Defence on Foot with the Broad Sword and Sabre, uniting the Scotch and Austrian Methods into one regular System. To which are added Remarks on the Spadroon. With Plates. 8vo. pp. 108. 6s. Boards. Egerton. 1798.

This is an excellent little work; fully containing every thing that the title-page promises, and calculated to be of service to the profi cient, as well as to the beginner.

The instructions are clear, minute, and comprehensive, without being at all diffuse or tiresome; and the more difficult positions are farther illustrated by several correct plates.

A kind of paper target is given with the work, with directions for practising at it; by which any gentleman may, in a considerable degree, instruct himself without a master, or even an opponent. Art. 19. The Proceedings of a General Court-Martial, held on Major General Maurice Wemyss, at the Marine Barracks, January 4, 1798. 8vo. 2s. Seeley, &c.

General Wemyss was tried on a charge of disobedience of orders, neglect of duty, and unofficerlike and ungentlemanlike conduct, &c.' On conviction of some parts of the charge, his sentence was,-a reduction to half-pay.

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The General has printed these proceedings as an appeal to the public; in order to rescue his character from the stigma which has been thrown upon it,' &c. &c.

This is a curious publication; in which much light seems to be thrown on the proceedings of the Court-Martial by the editor's observations, and by the letters and papers relative to the circumstances that are brought forwards in the charges against the General, &c. noticed in his Defence: which he was allowed to read in court; and which we consider as an animated, eloquent composition.

REV. SEPT. 1798.

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MEDICAL

MEDICAL, &c.

Art. 20. Practical Observations on the Disease of the Joints, commonly called White Swellings; with some Remarks on scrofulous abscesses. By Bryan Crowther, Surgeon to Bridewell and Bethlem Hospitals. 8vo. pp. 122. 38. sewed. Robinsons. 1797.

The principal intent of this pamphlet is to recommend, in cases of white swelling, the application of a blister over the diseased joint; and the subsequent dressing of the sore, occasioned by its action, with a cerate in which savine is the principal ingredient. This cerate

the author has found to be the best adapted to keep up a large and long-continued discharge from the ulcerated part :-on the quantity and duration of which discharge, and not on the irritation produced, he imagines the cure to depend.

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The success of this practice is illustrated by some useful cases.

Art. 21.

A Treatise on the Disorders of Childhood, and Management of Infants from the Birth; adapted to domestic Use. By Michael Underwood, M.D. Licentiate in Midwifery of the Royal College of Physicians in London, Physician to her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales, and senior Physician to the British Lying-in Hospital. New Edition. 3 Vols. 12mo. Ios. 6d. sewed. Mathews. We have already taken two opportunities of bearing our testimony to the merit of this useful work, in its former editions. The first (which was comprised in one volume) was noticed in the lxxist vol. of the M. Rev. O. S. p. 477. The second edition of Dr. Underwood's very successful publication, enlarged to two volumes, was reviewed in our Number for March 1790; and now we have the plea sure of seeing it farther augmented to three volumes. The alterations and additions are very considerable. On the whole, this Library for the Nursery appears to be a very useful, and, indeed, a very im portant present to the public.

Art. 22. An Entire New Treatise on Leeches, wherein the Nature, Properties, and Use of that most singular and valuable Reptile is most clearly set forth. By George Horn, Apothecary, &c. 8vo. pp. 39. rs. 6d. Symonds. 1798.

We need add nothing to the information conveyed in this titlepage, respecting the contents of the pamphlet ; except a hint which (in gratitude to the "wonderful reptile" of which it treats) we wish to make known to the useful community of nurses. It is, that to sprinkle salt on leeches which have drawn is truly absurd, and oftentimes kills them ;'-and, says our author, I would ask such inconsiderate persons (the sprinklers) how they would feel themselves, if, immediately after eating a hearty dinner, any person was to give them a violent emetic.'-Sick-we suppose.

*The formula recommended is as follows:

R Sabina, recentis contusa.

Cera flave, singularum, libram unam.
Adipis suille, libras quatuor.

Adipe, cera liquefactis incoque sabinam, et cola.

POLITICAL

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