ably well.

This account perhaps (fays Mr. Baretti) does no great honour to my dear country; but fhall I tell lies to do honour to my dear country?

P. 329, He affirms that, till within these two or three years, for half a century paft, fonnets, eclogues, love ftanzas, &c. have infected all Italy; and that this poetical peftilence has, during that period, committed the moit cruel devastation on logic, good taste and common sense.

P. 381. That amongst the innumerable false opinions which are adopted in wife Italy for true ones, that which Italians form in regard to their language, is not the leaft falfe; as they suppose without fcruple, that it is fuperior, in beauty, to all the living languages; and that it even equals thofe of Greece and ancient Rome; but that he shall fhew them, with clear evidence, the falfity of this notion, and prove to them, that their language is not equal, much lefs fuperior, to the living languages of France and England.

P. 168. That in Italy there are, at this time, more writers than readers; but that there are only three authors generally read; one a good writer, Metaftafio, the other two, Goldoni and Chiari, bad writers.

P. 253. That however Italy may not be fo totally deftitute of accomplished ladies, as fome women-haters would make us believe; nevertheless we must, to our shame, confess, that our ladies are not generally educated with the fame attention, as in other parts of Europe. In France, Germany, and even in Denmark and Sweden, it is as eafy to find many women perfectly well educated, and confequently knowing and amiable, as in this our peninfula, to meet with foolish and ill be haved women; nevertheless the blame of this disgraceful difference betwixt all our ladies, and all the ladies of those countries, is not to be imputed entirely to our fathers and mothers, though they scandaloufly neglect this their principal duty, but in great part to the writers in Italy, who have not yet been able to fupply their country with proper books for finishing a woman's education.'

This is only a fmall fpecimen of Mr. Baretti's impartiality with regard to his dear country. Who could think that the author of the Account of Italy, and the writer of the Frufta Letteraria, were defcribing the fame land, men, women, and manners?

In a chapter to which Mr. Baretti has given the title of the glories of the age of darkness, he fays, If in future times, any learned men, fhall compile the infipid literary hiftory of modern Italy, I beg my name may not be mentioned amongst thofe of my countrymen; and my ghoft will be much obliged to them;

if they will inform their cotemporaries, that I never fspoke of the age I lived in, but under the title of Tenebrofo; and a few lines lower, he calls it an age, with refpectato Italy, dark, very dark-Tenebrofo, Tenebrofiffimo.I fhall make no comment on these bold ftrokes, and feeming caricatures ; but the reader, I fuppofe, will, after this reprefentation, forbear to cenfure Mr. Sharp's total filence on the ftate of learning in Italy; as it is natural to believe, that however wide his opinions may have been from thofe advanced in the Frufta. Letteraria, by Mr. Baretti, yet he could hardly dare to oppofe the judgment of a man, who was a critic by profeffion, and who being an Italian, was fo much better qualified than he could be, to write on fo difficult a subject.'

Mr. Sharp in the next place takes notice of the reprefentation which Mr. Baretti has made in his Frufta Lette raria of the Vocabulary of the Crufca. · Though the

Mr.

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Vocabulary of the Crufca (fays he) contain four thousand more words, than either Johnfon's Dictionary, or that of the French Academy; yet one third of them are not used, either in writing, or in converfation; whereas both the English and French adopt in a manner every word in their dictionaries. Baretti thinks it would be of utility to the public, were the Vocabulary purged of the various kinds of obiolete, and certain obfcene words with which it abounds. He laments that the ancient and prefent members of the academy, being mostly Florentines, have always prefcribed to authors the ufe of the Tufcan language. He fays, that in France the language of books is the fame through the whole kingdom; and that in England the fame rule is obferved; but that in Italy authors are conftrained to ftudy the dialect of a particular country, which would not have been the cafe, had the vocabulary of the Crufca been a univerfal, and not a provincial vocabulary. Another objection to their vocabulary, is their choice of words from infamous and vulgar writers; whereas in England, the models of the language are the writings of Clarendon, Temple, Swift, &c. and in France, the Corneilles, the Racines, the Molieres, are their models, all venerable names;—and, fays he, fhall we Italians number amongst the authors of our language, a croud of fcriveners, barbers, coopers, carpenters, and fuch like rabble? Can a language written in the times of barbarism, when we knew neither science nor criticism, ftand in any competition with the languages written by Boffuet and Tillotson? What ample dictionaries would thofe of England and France be, if the French ftill registered the words used by Amift, Rabelais, Comines; and the English preserved those

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of

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of Gower, Chaucer, and Caxton? He finishes this critique on the Italian vocabulary with an observation on Boccace, which, as I efteem it equally curious with all the opinions ad vanced under this article, I fhall beg leave to lay before the reader.

"Boccace had wit, a lively imagination, eloquence, and all the other endowments neceffary to form a good writer; nevertheless Boccace has been the ruin of the Italian tongue, and the chief caufe that Italy does not yet poffefs a good and univerfal language; because these writers who first succeeded him, and afterwards the academifts of the Crufca, delighted with his writings, the beft they had yet feen, and charmed more than they fhould have been with the wantonness of his pen, they went on from year to year, and from age to age, celebrating him fo much, that at length the universal opinion, or rather the universal error, was established; that in point of language and style, Boccace was abfolutely without a fault; and confequently that whoever would write well in Italian, ought to write as Boccace had written.-But how can it be believed, that a man who lived in an age nearly barbarous, could perfect the language of our country? that a servile imitator of the tranfpofed phrafes of the Latin, a dead language, could be the original of his own, a living one? Neverthelefs fuch was the refpect paid to his works, that for the space of two hundred years, hardly any writer prefumed to adopt a word not confecrated in them. This is the reason why our written language ftill retains the Latin character, and that people in general cannot be pleafed with the writings of Boccace, nor his followers: whilst in England and in France, where they fortunately had no Boccace, nor difciples of Boccace, there have been formed two written languages, equally intelligible to the highest and the loweft orders of men."

We shall not trefpafs upon this performance, by producing farther inftances of Mr. Baretti's abfurdities, inconfiftencies, and contradictions, which are to be found in every page. It is fufficient to fay, that Mr. Sharp has more than vindicated his own candor as a gentleman, and his character as a traveller and a scholar. He has fully fhewn his antagonist to be deficient in both, after trying him by the most unexceptionable of all evidences, his own free and uncompelled teftimony; and that he is only, to give him the moft favourable appellation, à literary harlequin, but deftitute of fkill and abilities to perform his part.

IV. Com

IV. Commentaries on the Laws of England. Book the Third. By William Blackstone, Efq. Solicitor General to her Majefty.. 4to. Pr. 185. Bathurst. Concluded.

MR

R. Blackstone, in the very interesting part of his work at which we broke off in our laft Review, diftinguishes between an appeal from a court of equity, and writs of error from a court of law: That the former may be brought upon any interlocutory matter, the latter upon nothing except only a definitive judgment: That on writs of error the house of lords pronounces the judgment, on appeals it gives direction to the court below to rectify its own decree. :

The next court that I fhall mention is one that hath no original jurisdiction, but is only a court of appeal, to correct the errors of other jurifdictions. This is the court of exchequer chamber; which was first erected by statute 31 Edw. III. C. 12. to determine causes upon writs of error from the com mon law fide of the court of exchequer. And to that end it confifts of the lord treasurer, the lord chancellor, and the juf tices of the king's bench and common pleas. In imitation of which, a fecond court of exchequer chamber was erected by ftatute 27 Eliz. c. 8. consisting of the justices of the common pleas, and the barons of the exchequer; before whom writs of error may be brought to reverfe judgments in certain fuits ori ginally begun in the court of king's bench. Into the court also of exchequer chamber, (which then confifts of all the judges of the three fuperior courts, and now and then the lord chancellor alfo) are fometimes adjourned from the other courts fuch caufes, as t the judges upon argument find to be of great weight and difficulty, before any judgment is given upon them in the court below.?

Our learned author's account of the jurifdiction of the house of peers is equally rational and natural. He obferves, that it has no original jurifdiction, but only upon appeals and writs of error. The reafon of this is, that upon the diffolution of the Aula Regia, which was compofed of the barons of par liament, and when its jurifdiction was fplit into fubordinate tribunals, it followed, that the right of receiving appeals, and fuperin end ng all other jurifdictions, ftill remained in that no ble ffeably, from which every other great court was derived. No appeal is permitted from them, the law repofing an entire confidence in the honour and confcience, of the members. He mentions afterwards a tribunal eftablished by ftatute the 14th of Edward II. confifting of one prelate, two earls, and two barons. This court or rather committee, feems to have been inftituted to remedy the defects or delays in the proceed

ings

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ings of inferior courts, and intended to be a kind of fupplement to the court of peers, left the fubject should suffer for want of an appeal during its non-feffion.

Mr. Blackstone next gives an account of the courts of affize and nifi prius; but we shall omit particulars, as lawyers can be no ftrangers to their inftitutions, and the knowledge of them is not extremely neceffary to the generality of other readers.

The contents of the fifth chapter, which treats of courts ecclefiaftical, military, and maritime, must be both interefting and entertaining to all readers. In the Saxon times, the Jay and ecclefiaftical jurifdictions were the fame. The bishop fat in judgment with the aldermen and fheriff of the county'; but a greater deference of opinion was given to him in ecclefiaftical matters, as in temporal matters to the lay judge. Our author thinks that this moderate and rational plan was destroyed by the ambition of the court of Rome, which feparated the ecclefiaftical from the lay jurifdiction, and monopolized to itself the cognizance of all clerical matters and clergymen. Henry I. when he restored the laws of Edward the Confeffor, reftored that part of the English conftitutión; but the ambitious prelate archbishop Anfelm oppofed it; and in the fynod of the clergy at Westminster, the 3d of Henry I. they ordained, that no bishop should attend the difcuffion of temporal causes, which foon diffolved this newly effected union. We need not point out to the reader the mischief and the bloodshed which this papal arrogance occafioned not only in England, but all over Europe, nor the abfurd doctrines upon which it was formed. We cannot, however, in this place avoid the temptation of obferving, that other ranks of men befides the clergy are fond of having their inftitutions confidered as facred, and to contain myfteries of which they themselves only can be the judges; though, in fact, a very small portion of common fenfe may enable any man, as well as an adept, to give a found rational verdict upon the offence.-Difcipline, it is said, muft be kept up.-The church of Rome always did, and still does make ufe of the fame argument; but we can fee no reason why a free British fubject is reduced to a state worse than that of flavery, on pretence of preserving difcipline.

In treating of courts Christian or ecclefiaftical, Mr. Blackstone obferves the fame method he purfued when he explained the nature of civil courts; for he begins with the lowest, and afcends gradually to the fupreme court of appeal.

The archdeacon's court is held in his abfence by his official,

and from thence lies an appeal to

The confiftory court, which every diocefan bishop holds in

his cathedral, for trying ecclefiaftical caufes within his diocefe,