Notwithstanding the objections which we have stated against fome particulars in this work, it contains, on the whole, abundance of agreeable and ufeful knowlege, for those who wish for a general idea of natural hiftory; and where the author appears open to animadverfion, it is rather for his aiming at too much to fulfil his title, than from deficiency. N. ART. XIX. Précis de l'Hiftoire de France. A concife History of France, from the Etablishment of the Monarchy to the prefent Extracted from the belt Writers, by Mr. Des Carrieres. 8vo. pp. 256. 75. Boards. Cadell. 1791. Time, A FTER the wonderful change which has lately taken place in the political ftate of France, the hiftory of that country may be regarded as "a tale of other times:" but it will be always a tale full of important inftruction, both to governors and fubjects. The principal heads of this hiftory are related in the work now before us, with a fpirit of freedom which does credit to the writer. The materials are judiciously felected from the principal French hiftorians, particularly Millot; and the narrative is enlivened, and rendered interefting, by many juft and pertinent reflections. The French original and the English tranflation are printed on oppofite pages. Of the Jatter we fhall give a fhort fpecimen, in the following account of the manner in which Philip IV. furnamed the Fair, treated the clergy; and of his affembling, for the first time, the Tiers Etats: Philip the Fair had a more dangerous enemy in pope Boniface VIII. capable of throwing all Europe in confufion, if he had not had to deal with an inflexible prince. This pontiff, full of pride, ambition, and audacity, who had arrived at the Holy See by taking advantage of the fimplicity of his predeceffor, whom he had perfuaded to refign, and whom he afterwards caufed to die in prifon, would arrogate to himself the arbitration of the differences between Philip and his vaffals. It was given him to understand, that he had no order to give in that matter; that the king respected him as the chief of the religion, but had no need of him to reign. Pride, thus wounded, does not easily pardon: the pontiff foon revenged himfelf. Philip, wanting money, and unwilling to opprefs the other claffes of citizens, already exhaufted by fubfidies, thought with reafon, that the ecclefiafticks, being members of the flate as well as others, ought to contribute toward its fupport, and laid an impoft upon the clergy. Some of the members complained to Boniface, who immediately iffued a bull, and without mentioning France in particular, forbade every clerk, prelate, monk, &c. under pain of excommunication, to pay to the laity any fort of tax, under what name foever, without permiflion of the Holy See. Philip made ufe of re prifals, prifals, and without mentioning Rome, forbade any one to transport out of the kingdom, money, jewels, arms, provifions, &c. without permiffion, figned by his hand. A new bull, ftill more rafh, was followed by a manifefto of Philip. Boniface in his fury has recourse to thofe arms which unhappily have but too much power over minds enflaved by ignorance, and blinded by fuperftition. This arrogant pontiff fulminates bull upon bull; declaring, that God has established him over kings and kingdoms, to pull down, destroy, ruin, difperfe, edify and plant; orders the clergy of France to Rome, to deliberate on the reform of the state; acquaints the king that he may repair there, or fend fome one, to hear, fays he, the judgment of God and of us; and in the mean while fummonfes him, under pain of excommunication, to acknowledge that he holds the temporal fovereignty of his kingdom from the pope. The leaft of thefe ftrokes would have dethroned a Lewis the Meek. Philip the Fair oppofed them with immoveable firmness. He caufed one of the bulls of Boniface to be publicly burnt, without any regard to his dignity; and if, in his anger, he went fo far as to write him an injurious letter, wherein he reproached him with foolishness; on the other hand, he had the prudence to affemble the States General of the kingdom. The Third Eftate, or Commons, was convoked for the first time; Philip following in this the example which had been given him fome years before, by Edward I. who, when in want of fubfidies, having affembled the parliament of England, then for the first time likewife convoked the deputies of boroughs, or the Commons: "Becaufe," faid he, "it is just that all should approve that which regards the intereft of all, and that common danger fhould be repelled by common efforts." It cannot be eafily conceived, that an ambitious prince, fuch as Philip the Fair, could have convoked the States of the nation, and given the Commons admiffion thither. This affembly might have proved formidable to the fovereign, if the three orders had confpired to limit his power. But as they were in difcord among themselves, and divided by particular interefts, a common intereft fhould unite them against the enterprifes of Boniface. It was of importance to Philip, that the nation fhould acknowledge the independence of his crown. The tyrannic exactions of the court of Rome, had for a long time prepared their minds; and the king's confidence could not fail to infpire them with an unanimous zeal. Befides, he wifhed above all things to raise money. The greatest part of impofitions fell upon the citizens. By joining the Third Eftate to the Clergy and Nobility, means were found to obtain ea. fily that which it was hazardous to exact with perpetual rigour. "The people," faid Stephen Pafquier, "pleafed with the honour they receive by being confulted, run with joy to these general diets, and become more hearty promifers of what they are asked." Philip had all the fuccefs he could expect from this extraordinary affembly. The three orders of the ftate feparately gave their opinion in favour of the independence of the crown; the nobles, and the commons, in the maft decifive manner, and the strongest terms; the clergy, at firft, by fhifting, by trying to excufe the O 2 pope, pope, and cautiously treating the head of the church;-fuch was the imbecility of thofe, who, however, were at that time almost the only perfons in France able to read.' The reader will eafily perceive, in this fpecimen, too much of the Gallic idiom, to entitle the tranflator to great praise for the propriety of his English ftyle. The work is, however, on the whole, as far as it is executed, a good abridgement of the Hiftory of France. It will be completed in a fecond volume, fpeedily to be published. E. ART. XX. Tranfactions of the Society inftituted at London, for the 8vo. PP. WE E have fo often had occafion to mention this refpectable fociety, and the ufeful objects of its purfuit, that it is only neceffary, at this time, to premife, that the fame general arrangement is obferved in the prefent volume, as in those that have preceded it. The papers here communicated, are divided into five claffes, viz. Agriculture, Chemistry, Manufactures, Mechanics, and Colonies and Trade. The first class among the papers on agriculture is appropriated to the account of the various kinds of trees that have been planted in this year, by the fuccessful candidates for the premiums, offered by the fociety. These occur in the following order: The gold medal, for planting acorns. To John Morfe of Norwich, Efq. twenty-five acres planted-fix acres, arable land, in rows at fix feet distance and ploughed in with wheatand nineteen acres, heath land, in rows at fix feet distance, three rows of acorns and one of Scotch firs to nurse up the acorns. The gold medal, for planting Spanish chefnuts, Mr. Joseph Cowlifhaw-fix acres. Elms, the gold medal. To Richard Slater Milnes, Efq. of Foyfton near Ferry-bridge, Yorkshire-for planting 20,000 English elms. Larch trees, the gold medal. To the fame, for planting 200,000 larch trees. The filver medal. To Mr. George Wright, of Anfton, Yorkthire, for planting 11,573 larch trees. Afb, the gold medal. To Richard Lord Bishop of Landaff, for planting 11,000 afh plants intermixed with 3,200 oaks, 2,000 elms, 2,000 beech, 2,000 fycamore, and 650 Carolina poplers. By By these notices, it appears that the planting of useful timber trees, particularly the larch, continues to encrease, under the aufpices of this fociety. The next three papers are on the difeafe called curled tops in potatoes. The firft is by Mr. William Hollins, who endeavours to convince the reader that this diforder is produced entirely by feed that has been raised in confequence of a late luxu riant growth in the preceding feafon. The fecond paper is by Mr. William Pitt, and the third by Mr. John Holt; both of whom maintain that it arifes from what they call degenerated varieties, without giving any diftinct notion of what they mean by this term. We are forry to find fo much hypothetical reafoning on this interesting fubject adopted by all these writers, fo that nothing conclufive can be gathered from their communications. The fociety, unable to afcertain to whom the premium (thirty guineas) was due, divided it among them. We fear that this decifion may induce others, in future, to come forward as competitors for premiums, who may have their theories fupported only by vague and unfatisfactory reafoning; which has proved, for many centuries, the bane of agriculture. Mr. Prefgrove, of Bourn, in Lincolnshire, gives an account of his fuccefs in feeding cattle with potatoes; he having cultivated eight acres and fifteen perches of land with potatoes, for the fole purpose of feeding cattle with them: for which he obtained the fociety's premium of twenty guineas. The profit or lofs of this enterprife does not clearly appear from this statement, but Mr. P. feems to have been fatisfied with his fuccefs. Mr. Thomas Noyes, of Parkfarm, near Eltham, having obtained the filver medal and ten guineas, as a premium for ftall feeding horfes, defcribes, in the next paper, his mode of practice. The horfes were fed, during the whole fummer, on green tares; and he found the practice very beneficial both for horfes and other cattle. We have often been furprized that ftall feeding of horfes and other beafts in fummer, on tares, clover, lucerne, faintfoin, &c. fhould be fo little practifed in England; as it is doubtlefs a plan that might be followed, on many occafions, with great economy:-nothing but inattention can have made our farmers overlook this economical practice. Mr. John Bail, who gained the premium in the preceding year, for cultivating rhubarb, has again obtained the gold medal. He has now railed upward of fix hundred plants which were put out at fix feet diftance from each other, and were properly attended. This gentleman finds the quality of the thubarb raifed by him to be very good, and it profpers abundantly. 03 Mr. Mr. Haywood, apothecary at Banbury, who obtained the fecond premium, confirms this opinion. The most important paper, in this department, is an account of a fuccessful undertaking, by Thomas Quayle, Efq. of Reading, Berks, for gaining, from the fea, one hundred and ten acres and nineteen falls of land, in Dengey hundred, Effex.The details of this important improvement are here specified with much minutenefs; and as it appears that the operations have been carried on with great judgment, we recommend this article to the attention of gentlemen who have land fimilarly circumftanced. As any abridgement of thefe operations would prove unfatisfactory, we must refer to the work itself. A fimilar undertaking, on a fmaller fcale, by Mr. Thomas Lee of Tolefbury in Effex, is defcribed in another article.-He gained upward of thirty acres of falt marsh at Goldhanger in the fame county; and his paper deferves alfo to be confulted. Some account of the management of bees, by John Lane and Simon Manley, follow in the next two articles. It appears that these induftrious mechanics have each feparately been in the practice of keeping a great number of bee-hives for about thirty years paft; and they feverally fpecify their mode of practice. It does not appear that the bufinefs has been very profitable, as they both complain of poverty. The only paper in chemistry, that occurs in this volume, is an account of a difcovery of a mode of generating yeast from a decoction of malt, without addition of any fort. This difcovery was made by a fervant (Jofeph Seynor) of the Rev. Mr. William Mafon of Afton, near Rotheram. Our readers will recollect the account of the experiments of the ingenious Mr. Henry, published in the Memoirs of the Philofophical Society of Manchester *; by which he obtained a quantity of yeaft from a decoction of malt, after having impregnated that decoction with a quantity of fixed air. The prefent experiments tend to fhew that this addition of fixed air is not at all neceffary; and that yeaft, in proper circumftances, may, at any time, be generated from a folution of malt per fe. It has been long known that the juice of the grape entered into fermentation of itfelf, without any addition; and that, in consequence of that fermentation, a quantity of yeaft is always generated yet, till the prefent moment, it never feems to have been fufpected, that it was poffible to excite this fermentation, in a decoction of malt, without adding yeast to it, or fixed air, according to Mr. Henry's method. * See Review, vol. lxxiv. page 350. Honeft |