13. The Important Advantages to the Power, Trade, and Naviga tion of Great Britain, that would refult from our Protection of Corfica; and the no less fatal than unavoidable Confequences of our permitting France to keep Poffeffion of that Ifland; fet forth in five Letters, addreffed to the Right Hon. the Earl of Chm. By a Nephew to the late John Trenchard, Efq; Author of Cato's Letters. 8vo. Pr. 1 s. Browne.

-pa

How thefe authors pefter poor peers!This is the third noble lord whofe name, we are afraid, has been taken in vain, and addreffed to, on the affairs of Corfica. The fame idle felfimportance and affectation of patriotism that fill the other publications on the fame fubject, is difcernible in this. We are, for our own parts, entirely fatisfied as to the abilities, and triotifm of all the three noble lords; and we firmly believe that the brave Corficans will be relieved as far as is confiftent with national honour; but we have no idea that every fáwcy fcribbler has a right to demand that the fecrets of the cabinet should be laid open, in order to gratify his venal curiofity.

14. A Lecture on moving Figures. Representing the principal Actors on our political Stage, as they really are divefted of the falfe Colourings of Party or Prejudice. By Seignior Fidalgo, of Chelfea. 8vo. Pr. 15. Wilkie.

The plan of this publication promifes fomething humorous, but is very poorly executed, being made up of common-place teflections and abuse upon the great men of our own country. The author has bestowed many fulfome encomiums upon a late first lord of the admiralty, for which we fuppofe his lordship will not thank him..

15. The Conduct of Ralph Hodgson, Efq; one of his Majesty's
Juftices of Peace for the County of Middlesex, in the Affair of the
Coal-beavers. 800.
Is. Nicoll.

Pr.

In a country like England, where there is fo great a scarcity of hands for manufactures and ufeful labour, we must be of opinion that as few unneceffary hands as poffible ought to be employed upon our laborious employments. We fhall not difpute the veracity of any fact which Mr. Hodgfon advances in this pamphlet to vindicate his own conduct, because we profefs ourfelves to be totally unacquainted with the particulars. He muft give us leave, however, to obferve, that the coal-heavers must be deemed a useless body of people, if their business could be executed, as well and much cheaper, by failors who man the fhips that bring up the coals to London. National policy, therefore, dictated, that both their numbers and wages ought to

be

be reduced; and their own audacious bloody behaviour justified all the severities that were employed against them.

16. A full and impartial View of the Trial of Donald Maclane, who was indicted at the Affixes held at Guildford, on Monday the 8th of Auguft, for the wilful Murder of William Allen the Younger. By a Student of Gray's-Inn. 8vo. Pr. is. Harris. This is another pamphlet which cannot properly fall within the province of criticifm. All we can fay is, that if the facts it contains are fairly represented (as we have no room no room to doubt they are) Donald Maclane, had he been hanged, would have been legally murdered; and that both judge and jury did their duty when he was acquitted.

17. The Speech of Mr. George Johnftone in the General Court of Proprietors of Eaft-India Stock, upon the Subject of the Reftitution for private Loffes, in the War of Coffim Ali Cawn. Folie. Pr. 6d. Becket.

Mr. Johnftone lays down and enforces his propofition in the following words:

Mr. Chairman,

The propofition I have to make to the court is, that an immediate order fhall be fent out to Bengal, (at the expence of the claimants} directing the governor and council for that settlement to pay to the several sufferers, in the war with Meer Coffim Ali Cawn, their respective shares of the ballance due, by way of reftitution for the loffes they fuftained in their trade, agreably to the treaty with Jaffier Ali Cawn concluded the 10th July 1763, and which treaty has been fince ratified and renewed by his fucceffor.

In difcuffing this question, I fhall endeavour to avoid every thing that may feem to apply to the paffions, although the fubject is replete with every circumftance that is capable of exciting gratitude, pity, or commiferation in the buman breast. Nay, fhould the pale figures of my departed friends prefent themselves to my imagination in all the horrors of their inhuman? maffacre, I will remove them from my mind, and cover their 904 bodies with a pall, till this fubject is decided. It is on the juf tice of the cafe alone that I found the rectitude of my propofal'; and if I cannot convince the reafon of my audience upon the strictest rules of the most rigid justice, I'defire not to receive the vote of any man upon this occafion.'L

As Mr. Johnstone makes out his propofition with a plenitude of proof, and is an able advocate for the cause he efpoufes, we fhall be so much his friend as to remind him, that a fuperfluity of expreffion is hurtful to the elegance of oratory. Cicero was

fenfible that he himself was too fubject to a redundancy of fpeaking: Multa (fays he, in his De Oratore) depafcenda ftylo; and it coft him great pains to bring his luxuriancy to what farmers call a fhort bite, which they obferve always produces the best mutton. We fhall therefore f fubmit it to Mr. Johnftone's confideration, whether the words we have marked with italics in the preceding quotation, might not be spared without injuring his eloquence. This is a hint we should not take the pains to throw out to an ordinary fpeaker; but we think this gentleman's abilities would entitle him, with a little application, to a rank amongst the diferti, if not the eloquentes, by his facri ficing a little to the graces.

18 Farnaby illuftrated: or, the Latin Text of Farnaby's Rhe

estoric exemplified, by various Paffages, from the Sacred Stbors.

the Roman Claffics; and the moft diftinguished British Authors. 8vo. Pr. 1S. Nicoll.

Could the writers upon rhetoric and literary compofitions give their readers a receipt how to acquire genius, as well as how to practise poetry, their labours would be ineftimable. Cicero and Quintilian, after laying down the most rational and elegant rules for eloquence, fairly fay, that without natural talents they can be of very little use to their pupils. The manufacture of eloquence, however, is much more practicable than that of poetry, which à cœlo defcendit; and we can by no means think that the pamphlet before us, though we acknowledge it to be accurately and judiciously compiled, can prove of great fervice to learning. It may, indeed, furnish a critic with a few terms to figure away with at a club or a coffeehoufe; but real genius requires no fuch affiftance; and it never can be of fervice to mediocrity, far lefs to dulnefs.

It is extremely remarkable, that the poets and writers from whom this author and others of the fame class take their most strik3ng examples, are thofe who have been the least acquainted with the rules either of poetry or eloquence. We will venture to affert, that neither Shakespear, Otway, Pope, Prior, Thomson, and twenty other poets of eminence, who are now claffics in the English language, ever troubled their heads about the art of poetry, or the figures of compofition. Ben Johnfon, who was a learned poet, and extremely well acquainted with the figures of writing, is very feldom quoted on fuch occafions; and eyen Mr. Addifon, who was a profound and rational critic, affords but few embellishments to a work of this kind. We fhall conclude this article with four lines taken from Sir William Soame's tranflation of Boileau's Art of Poetry.

Rafh author, 'tis a vain prefumptuous crime,
To undertake the facred task of rhime,

If at thy birth the ftars which rule mankind,
Shone adverse, and of unpoetic kind.

19. For the Ufe of Schools. An Epitome of Grammar. By Philip Parfons, A. M. Mafter of the Grammar School at Wye, in Kent8a. Pr. 6d. Hawes...

This epitome, with a little improvement, may, in fome. measure, anfwer the purposes of a grammar. The author gives examples of the declenfions of nouns, but fays nothing of adjectives and pronouns. He fhews the formation of regular verbs; and has collected a great number of irregulars, to which he has fubjoined their preterit tenfe. But in this part of his work, which ought to have been particularly correct, he has given us at least one inftance of his inattention. Abfcondo, he fays, does not make abfcondidi, but abscondedi. This is a miftake. We have feen abfcondi, and abfcondidi, (Sil. Ital. 1. 8. 193, &c.) but never remember to have met with abfcondedi. The government of adjectives and verbs is exemplified in about feventy hexameter lines.

F

20. The Univerfal Tutor: or, New English Spelling Book and Expofitor. By J. Seally, Mafter of the Academy in Bridgewater-Square. 8vo. Rofon.

This performance is recommended by thirty fchool-mafters.

21. The Academy of Play; Containing, a full Defcription of; and "the Laws of Play, now obferved in the feveral Academies of Paris, relative to the following Games, viz. Piquet, Quadrill, Ombre, Quintill, Piquemdrill, Imperial, The Reverse, Papillon, L'Ambigu, Commerce, Tontine, Lottery, Ma Commere, La Mariée, Triomphe, Tue Beaft, La Mouche, Man ́D'Auvergne, The Farm, The Game of Hoc, L'Emprunt, Le Poque, Romeflecq, Sizette, Guinguette, Le Sixte, Vingt-quatre, La Belle, Gillet, Cul Bas, The Cuckoo, Brufquembille, The Comet. From the French of the Abbé Bellecour. Izmo. Pr. 3. F. Newbery.

In an advertisement prefixed to this treatise the reader is informed, that there are in Paris feveral public places for play, which are, each of them, under the infpection of a master, or fuperintendant, and are called Academies?

Were Plato, Xenocrates, or Crantor to rife from the dead, how would the philofopher be aftonished at the degeneracy of the prefent age, and mortified to find the name of a place, the moft

L3

moft refpectable of all antiquity, applied not only to almoft every paultry school, but even to fcenes of trifling and diffipation, where people of the moft frivolous understandings are taught, not the principles of philofophy, or the belles lettres, but the games of Hoc, Papillon, Gillet, Cul-bas and Cuckoo! As to the merit of this work, it will be fufficient to obferve, that it is a fuller and more complete treatise on the several games here described, than any which has hitherto appeared. The first principles of Piquet, Quadrill, Ombre, &c. may be learned from the directions of M. Bellecour; art and dexterity in these games are only to be attained by the routine of play.

22. Some Remarks on a Late Differtation upon Head-Dress, with Useful Inftructions relating to that Art. By R. Ward, Gentlemen and Ladies Hair Dreffer, Peruke and Tete-maker, izmo. Pr. Is. Richardfon.

When the rivalfhip of hair-dreffers is carried on by literary publications, we, likewife, may be allowed to affume a new province, and prognofticate that there, will be an immenfe quantity of wafte paper this feafon.

23. A Dialogue between a Captain of a Merchant-Ship, and a Farmer, concerning the pernicious Practice of Wrecking: As exemplified in the unhappy Fate of one William Pearce, of St. Gennis, whe was executed at Launceston in Cornwall, October 12, 1767. Shewing also how the Captain was converted to a Life of much Sericufness and Confideration, &c. &c. By Jonas Salvage, Gent. 12mo. Pr. 6d. Dilly.

This piece is written with a good defign, namely, to represent the injuftice and inhumanity of plundering fhips which happen to be wrecked on the fea-coafts. It is properly calculated for the common people in those parts of England, where these barbarities are practifed,

24. The Judgment of Paris. An English Burletta. In two Alts. As it is performed at the Theatre-Royal in the Hay-market. The Mufic compofed by Mr. Barthelemon. 8vo. Pr. 1s. Becket.

This is a burlesque upon the well known ftory of the Judgment of Paris. The execution is indifferent; but we are told that the mufic is excellent. 盒 subido CEST

25. A New Syftem of Phyfic: founded on the Principles of Nature, and not on the Materia Medica, demonftrable by Effects. By J. Cordwell. Small 8vo. Pr. 15. Murdoch.

This whimsical production is a piece of the leaven of Her